Musculoskeletal Basics: The Shoulder and the Knee Workshop for Primary Care Residents

Although musculoskeletal (MSK) complaints are very common in ambulatory clinics, internal medicine residents report low confidence in performing MSK examinations and intra-articular steroid injections. Our goal is to strengthen residents' MSK competence by using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic educational modalities during an academic half-day session.

Our intervention was a workshop/academic half-day session that included multimodal educational materials on common shoulder and knee MSK complaints. The intervention featured a PowerPoint presentation highlighting three areas of MSK education: history taking, physical examination, and procedural skills. The curriculum contained a novel interactive charades game in which competitors demonstrated joint exams, an engaging anatomy quiz, and the performance of knee and subacromial bursae injections using interactive models and educational videos.

The effectiveness of our session was measured using a pre- and postsurvey. In our 2017 resident survey to determine the level of comfort in performing knee and shoulder physical examination and intra-articular injections, the majority of respondents perceived themselves as inadequately trained. After the session, confidence in performing knee and shoulder examinations and in performing knee and subacromial bursae injections increased significantly. In addition, 100% of the residents who attended and evaluated the session either agreed or strongly agreed that the experience improved MSK knowledge and employed effective teaching strategies.

The workshop/academic half-day session positively enhanced residents' perception of their knowledge of MSK medicine and their ability to perform joint injections.